Injuries are mounting for Dundee ahead of a crunch Championship clash with Ayr United at Dens Park.
The two promotion hopefuls face off in a re-arranged league clash aiming to take the chance to cut the lead held by Queen’s Park in top spot.
The Dark Blues trail by seven while the Honest Men are one point further back with victory crucial to any plan to peg back the Spiders.
Dundee, though, will have to contend with a number of first-team players missing.
Gary Bowyer has revealed he’ll be without seven for Tuesday’s clash while there are doubts over Ben Williamson after he limped off in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Partick Thistle.
“We’re having a spell where we’ve got injuries – the latest count is seven,” the Dundee boss said.
“We’ve got Tyler French (broken leg), Cillian Sheridan (ruptured Achilles), Cammy Kerr (ankle), Barry Maguire (ankle) picked up a freak one in training on Thursday, Ryan Clampin has been ill but was back in on Monday.
“Kwame Thomas and Lorent Tolaj as well.
“We’ll also see how Ben Williamson is in the morning. He passed the ball and then went down, said his hamstring was tight.
“It’s a difficult one but we’ve got time to see how it goes before the game.”
Kwame Thomas and Lorent Tolaj
Striking options are also limited with Thomas and Tolaj missing.
On-loan targetman Thomas returned against Inverness last month after suffering concussion at Greenock Morton on February 17.
However, the former England youth international has been out of action since while Tolaj remains sidelined too.
“When Kwame initially came back after the concussion he was fine but since then he’s had one or two symptoms,” Bowyer revealed.
“The medics have quite rightly shut things down. You have to follow the protocols again from the start.
“So he’s taken two steps forward and then three back.
“There’s no shortcuts with the protocol, rightly so, and we keep going through that.
“He started the process again on Thursday. It’s a five-day process and you have to have absolutely no symptoms to get through each stage.
“It’s been frustrating for all of us but more so for Kwame because he wants to be involved and playing.
“That’s a blow on top of Cillian Sheridan and we’ve got Lorent Tolaj out as well. His Achilles has flared up and not settled down yet.
“All of a sudden we are three strikers down.”
Zach Robinson and Jakubiak
That leaves Zach Robinson and Alex Jakubiak as Bowyer’s choices for the midweek clash.
Jakubiak replaced Robinson at Firhill on Saturday and Bowyer was pleased with the former Watford man.
“I thought he made an impact,” Bowyer added.
“It wasn’t one of Zach Robinson’s best games for us.
“He’s entitled to a poor game every now and then.
“I thought Jak provided something different. That’s the reason of having a squad, so people have an impact when they come on.”
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